Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Those of us who abhor execution have gotten some temporary good news: Hospira, the only U.S. company that manufactures sodium thiopental, has ceased its production:

The sole American manufacturer of an anesthetic widely used in lethal injections said Friday that it would no longer produce the drug, a move likely to delay more executions and force states to adopt new drug combinations.

The manufacturer, Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., had originally planned to resume production of the drug, sodium thiopental, this winter at a plant in Italy, giving state corrections departments hope that the scarcity that began last fall would ease.

But the Italian authorities said they would not permit export of the drug if it might be used for capital punishment. Hospira said in a statement Friday that its aim was to serve medical customers, but that we could not prevent the drug from being diverted to departments of corrections and the company did not want to expose itself to liability in Italy.

It’s temporary, because states are likely to approve alternative drugs — Oklahoma already uses pentobarbital — but according to the Times, the delay could be considerable because of the process required to get changes approved. Some states (such as Texas, which seems to have an insatiable itch to kill prisoners) clearly will push a new protocol through as quickly as possible, while others may be in less of a hurry.

This is also interesting as a demonstration of how one country can affect another through its policies. We’re used to using embargoes for this, to varying effect, but the problem with embargoes is that they often cause pain to the populace without resulting in policy changes in the government. In this case, Italy’s approach was simple, targeted, and effective.

I am a computer software engineer/architect, and I may sometimes write about things related to the work that I do. Notwithstanding that, whatever company I'm working for at the time has no connection to this web log or the writing herein, and what I say, no matter the topic, comes from me alone and does not represent the opinions or policies of my employer.

Comment previewing
I use comment moderation to avoid comment-spam and nastiness, not to filter opinions. I intend to publish all reasonable comments, whether or not they agree with me. I will not publish any comment that is unduly flaming or that uses foul language, whether or not it agrees with me. You may contact me about an entry by making a comment and telling me that it is a private comment, in which case I will not publish it. If you want a response, include your email address. For privacy reasons I won’t publish a comment that contains someone’s email address.

Unfortunately, because of comment spam I am no longer accepting anonymous comments. You may use a Google account or OpenID with a pseudonym, but you will have to log in to comment. I would rather not do this, but... blame the spammers.